F I D O N E W S Volume 16, Number 26 28 June 1999 +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | The newsletter of the | ISSN 1198-4589 Published by: | | FidoNet community | "FidoNews" | | _ | +27-41-581-5913 [5:5/23] | | / \ | | | /|oo \ | | | (_| /_) | | | _`@/_ \ _ | | | | | \ \\ | Editor: | | | (*) | \ )) | Henk Wolsink 5:7104/2 | | |__U__| / \// | | | _//|| _\ / | | | (_/(_|(____/ | | | (jm) | Newspapers should have no friends. | | | -- JOSEPH PULITZER | +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Submission address: FidoNews Editor 5:5/23 | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | MORE addresses: | | | | submissions=> editor@fidonews.org | | hwolsink@catpe.alt.za | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | For information, copyrights, article submissions, | | obtaining copies of FidoNews or the internet gateway FAQ | | please refer to the end of this file. | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1 He's Baaaack! ............................................ 1 2. ARTICLES ................................................. 2 Z1C Election moves to Regional Discussions ............... 2 3. NET HUMOR ................................................ 3 Top 15 Unforseen Y2K Consequences ........................ 3 4. COMIX IN ASCII ........................................... 4 Cows in Polonaise ........................................ 4 5. NOTICES .................................................. 5 Future History ........................................... 5 6. FIDONEWS INFORMATION ..................................... 6 FIDONEWS 16-26 Page 1 28 Jun 1999 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= He's Baaaack! Henk's back in town. I got email Saturday... his heart's still in Europe but his rear end is in South Africa. This will be my last issue as Editor Pro Tem; next week Fidonews will be in the capable hands of Henk Wolsink once again. It's been fun. I'd like to thank the folks who took advantage of the Editor Pro Tem Special to send me articles for Fidonews... where the heck were you all this week? :) And thanks for the suggestions and criticisms - it's nice to know folks out there actually read the Snooze! Thanks to Jim Barchuk for turning fidonews.org upside down so that I could do the Snooze from the heart of Pennsylvania. Thanks to Gary Rux and George Peace for modifying their TIC configuration so I could send instead of receive the FIDONEWS file area. And a special thanks to Henk for letting me roll my sleeves up and work with the newsletter of the Fidonet Community in his absence. Keep me in mind, Henk, if you need a stand in again. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-26 Page 2 28 Jun 1999 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Z1C Election moves to Regional Discussions Douglas Myers, 1:270/720 As of Sunday, June 27th (yesterday), the Z1C election moved from it's zonewide public input phase to a regional discussion phase. At this point, at least in theory, sysops have had sufficient time to evaluate the candidates based on their discussions in Z1_ELECTION and now have one week to inform their Regional Coordinator of their choice. All Regional Coordinators, to the best of my knowledge, have pledged to vote for the candidate the sysops in their region selects rather than a personal choice. Most regions plan to gather input from Net Coordinators. As a concerned sysop, this is the most critical phase of the election for you - this next week is your only chance to make your choice count. You should monitor your local net's sysop echo to see if your NC is gathering input - if not, netmail him or her with your choice. Monitor your region's sysop echo to see if your Regional Coordinator is gathering input there. If so, speak up... even if you've already spoken with your net. It's imperative that you speak up this week, as next week, July 3rd, the election will move to the Regional Coordinator's private echo for voting. Though Ross Cassell will be reporting on this vote, it will be too late to influence it. There's much more than the identity of the next Zone 1 Coordinator at stake here. This will be a test of sysop involvement in Zone 1 politics. Many feel that sysops throughout the zone just don't care about the coordinators who represent them. There is, in my opinion, the prospect that a poor turnout in this election will influence coordinators to conduct future sessions entirely behind closed doors, as has been done in the past. This election has busted one myth already: the feeling that any sysop level input into the election process would drag the election into senseless and unproductive bickering. However, the public discussion period was mostly orderly, with sysops asking reasonable and poignant questions, and candidates very responsive. Follow through by sysops in the next week should lay to rest the myth of sysop apathy in Fidonet. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-26 Page 3 28 Jun 1999 ================================================================= NET HUMOR ================================================================= The Top 15 Unforeseen Consequences of the "Millennium Bug" 15. IRS demands a hundred years of interest from stunned taxpayers. 14. "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" song gets stuck in infinite loop. 13. At the stroke of midnight, Windows 99 turns back into DOS 1.0, the Pentium V turns back into an 8088, and the Handsome User is left holding a beautiful glass mouse. 12. Internet Movie Database now lists "1901: A Space Odyssey" 11. Residents of Indiana have to figure out if they're off by 999 years, 364 days and 23 hours, or 1000 years and one hour. 10. Bob Dole's age erroneously listed with only 2 digits. 9. Mel Brooks's "2000 year old man" skit stops being funny.... oops, too late! 8. Sales of Coca Cola jumps drastically after original cocaine-laden formula becomes legal again. 7. Software engineers point out that since computers think it's almost 1900, we technically have to "party like it's 1899," which, frankly, doesn't seem like much fun. 6. Microsoft declares the year 1900 to be the new standard of the "Gatesian" calendar. 5. Jesus shows up late for His second coming, blames it on COBOL programmers. 4. Computers temporarily fooled into thinking Strom Thurmond is only 103. 3, First Top 5 List of the year? "Reasons No One Would Ever Assassinate President McKinley" 2. Using a computerized adoption service, Michael Jackson mistakenly takes home some octogenarians. and the Number 1 Unforeseen Consequence of the "Millennium Bug"... 1. Unexpected demand for COBOL programmers results in severe understaffing of fast-food restaurants. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-26 Page 4 28 Jun 1999 ================================================================= COMIX IN ASCII ================================================================= * (__)* (__)* (__)* (__) \ (oo) \ (oo) \ (oo) \ (o-) \-------\/ ^^\-------\/ ^^\-------\/ ^^\-------\/ | // | // | // | || ||------+ ||------+ ||------+ ||----|| ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ Cows in polonaise ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-26 Page 5 28 Jun 1999 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= Future History 24 Jul 1999 XIII Pan American Games [through 8 Aug 99]. 10 Sep 1999 10th anniversary of Zone 5 operations. 26 Oct 1999 Thirty years from release Abbey Road album by the Beatles. 31 Dec 1999 Hogmanay, Scotland. The New Year that can't be missed. 1 Jan 2000 The 20th Century, C.E., is still taking place thru 31 Dec. 1 Jun 2000 EXPO 2000 World Exposition in Hannover (Germany) opens. 15 Sep 2000 Sydney (Australia) Summer Olympiad opens. 21 Sep 2000 10 years of FidoNet in +7 (xUSSR) 1 Jan 2001 This is the actual start of the new millennium, C.E. -- If YOU have something which you would like to see in this Future History, please send a note to the FidoNews Editor. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FIDONEWS 16-26 Page 6 28 Jun 1999 ================================================================= FIDONEWS INFORMATION ================================================================= ------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION ------- Editor: Henk Wolsink Editors Emeriti: Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell, Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar, Sylvia Maxwell, Donald Tees, Christopher Baker, Zorch Frezberg "FidoNews Editor" FidoNet 5:5/23 BBS +27-41-581-5913, 2400/9600/V34 more addresses: Henk Wolsink -- 5:7104/2, hwolsink@catpe.alt.za (Postal Service mailing address) FidoNews Editor P.O. Box 12325 Port Elizabeth, 6006 South Africa ------------------------------------------------------ FidoNews is published weekly by and for the members of the FIDONET INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR ELECTRONIC MAIL system. It is a compilation of individual articles contributed by their authors or their authorized agents. The contribution of articles to this compilation does not diminish the rights of the authors. OPINIONS EXPRESSED in these articles ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHORS and not necessarily those of FidoNews and/or the Editor. Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is Copyright (C) 1999 Henk Wolsink. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. 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Box 410923, San Francisco, CA 94141, and are used with permission. "Disagreement is actually necessary, or we'd all have to get in fights or something to amuse ourselves and create the requisite chaos." -Tom Jennings -----------------------------------------------------------------